Rainbow Six Siege Review

First person shooters games are a dime a dozen. They are numerous, popular and above all, the same. Rainbow Six Siege hopes to change the formula, or at least, be different. Let’s see if this slow-paced, attack and defend strategy resonate with gamers. Also, if it’s any good because frankly, that’s why we play games!

The Brewer:

Ubisoft Montreal is the newer developer of this long-running series. Originally, Red Storm Entertainment was the developer of the Rainbow Six series. They were the ones that created an outstanding tactical shooter. Those days are gone and now Ubisoft Montreal is in control of the franchise. Originally slated as a follow-up to Rainbow Six Vegas, the game went on hiatus for a long while. Then showing off their new game Rainbow Six Seige. It was an ambitious design. Doing away with respawns and implementing tactical destruction. What is tactical destruction? It means that some areas in the game can be shot through or blown up. This type of destruction has only been seen in recent Battlefield games. It was a smart choice and for the most part, a welcome choice. This last part of the year is hopefully the year of change in gaming.

[Tweet “]It was an ambitious design.”]

How it was brewed:

Rainbow Six Siege is all about preparation, teamwork, and communication. Communication is a huge part of this game, if your team does not do it, then your team will probably lose badly. The 30 hours of playtime, I’ve seen great communication and terrible, most of the time, the team that communicated won. It’s imperative that a player has a mic. There are chatting options, but using a mic is always the better option. Ubisoft Montreal decided to go a different route than most first person shooters. Instead, of the instant respawn of Call of Duty and Star Wars Battlefront, Rainbow Six is about tactics, a little planning, and careful moving. This is problematic for most gamers.

[Tweet “Rainbow Six Siege is all about preparation, teamwork and communication.”]

We are more accustomed to running and gunning. The thought of not being a bullet sponge and only having one life per round makes us rethink the whole process. It’s refreshing to see a little change the tired formula of dying and respawning several times each round. The main component of the game is attacker vs. defender game mode. Players start off choosing an operator. Each operator has specific talents. Some operators are better than others, or that’s how many players have seen. Then the preparation phase begins. This means the defenders set up defensible positions and attackers use drones to find the bomb or hostage. There are many ways to stop the drones. Two operators have special abilities to stop drones. If the attackers spot the objective, then a big yellow indicator is shown on the screen. Then the fun or horror begins. The attackers have about four minutes to each defuse the bomb, escort the hostage, or kill all the defenders.

Each match creates a situational tension. Depending upon how well your team and the enemy team coordinates, matches will always be won or lost by the lack of communications. Quiet teams are silent killers. Quiet teams tend to have players going different directions and some coordinating with a few others.

[Tweet “Quiet teams are silent killers.”]

There is a “single player” mode, but it is a training mode for players to understand the core maps. It’s a great way learn the maps. The AI is useless so the change will never come from the single player mode. There’s a terrorist hunt mode too. This one can be played with other players. However, you are still playing against the AI, so it is usually not very hard to win the match.

The main game is the ranked and unranked multiplayer matches. This is where most people will spend their time playing the game.

The operators are not created equal. There are a few that almost seem useless. There are others that are important or vital to the game and others nice to have. On paper, they all seemed to be great, but since most traps are easy to spot, those operators that lay traps or detect them prove to be a hindrance more than help.

Most of the levels in Rainbow Six are done well. There is a good mix of open and covered spots. Unfortunately, for new players, some maps are confusing. There are big maps that make no sense. There were a few times my team could not find the bomb site. It took most of the match to find it. Once that happens, the attackers are at a disadvantage. Even with this minor annoyance, it is still a great game.

The Look, Sound, Taste, and Structure of the Brew:

The look of Rainbow Six is great. The debris that flies around when you up a wall. The mostly accurate destruction of walls, doors, windows etc. makes it feel realistic. The dust that picks up after a breach, the chip off of walls once a bullet hits the wall. Even on medium settings, the game looked great. As for graphical bugs, I didn’t notice one graphical bug. I also had a steady frame rate between 35 – 40. I was running it an i7 intel chip with 16 GB of RAM and an AMD 7800. Even though the card is quite old, I could still run the game on medium settings.

The sound design lends itself to bringing Rainbow Six alive. Every bullet discharge from a gun to every break in the wood by the players helps bring a distinct flavor to the game. It’s also more than that, the little subtle noises bring tension to the game. The walking on the roof, to the slow steps in the room beside you, to the low rumbling of the drone; all these sounds add to immerse a player in the world of Rainbow Six. It also adds to the stress of the game.

My big annoyance with the game has been the lag. That is the biggest complaint about this game. The lag has been great and awful at times. You never know what kind of lag you are going to get. I have been on games where it went from 50 to 60 ping all the way to 350. That is unacceptable for a competitive multiplayer game.

Final Thoughts:

Rainbow Six Siege is a great game. Even with the lag issues, the game has the potential to create a great community and with continued support an outstanding game. Even with some useless operators the game is easy enough for beginners to pick up and hard enough for people to figure out the tactics. If you are looking for an AAA fps that isn’t Battlefield or Call of Duty style gameplay, this game is for you.